The Divine Face 2 Enoch 22 and 39
The Second Apocalypse of Enoch is a pseudepigraphic text which describes the ascent of Enoch through ten heavens in the tenth heaven Enoch sees the appearance of god a description of the divine face is given in chapter 22
Chapter 22
In the tenth heaven the archangel Michael led Enoch to before the Lord’s face
1On the tenth heaven, which is called Aravoth,I saw the view of the face of the Lord, like iron made burning hot in a fire and brought out, and it emits sparks and is incandescent. Thus even I saw the face of the Lord. But the face of the Lord is not to be talked about, it is so very marvelous and supremely awesome and supremely frightening.
2 And who am I to give an account of the incomprehensible being of the Lord, and of his face, so extremely strange and indescribable? And how many are his commands, and his multiple voice, and the Lord's throne, supremely great and not made by hands, and the choir stalls all around him, the cherubim and the seraphim armies, and their never-silent singing.
3 Who can give an account of his beautiful appearance, never changing and indescribable, and his great glory? 4 And I fell down flat and did obeisance to the Lord (2 Enoch 22:1-4, the longer recension).[8]
the face of yahweh is like iron this would symbolis his corporeal substance or divine nature
the fire would also the nautre of yahweh God is spirit and
it emits sparks this symoises the emanations of the spirit
For Yahweh thy God is a consuming
fire" — A consuming fire will eat up all
that it attacks. Yahweh is such to His
enemies. See Deut. 9:3. When Israel was
gathered at the mount, "the sight of the
glory of Yahweh was like devouring fire"
(Exod. 24:17).
Yahweh makes his ministers a flame of fire
the description of Yahweh's corporeality
In chapter 39 Enoch reports this theophanic experience to his sons during his short visit to the earth, adding some new details. Although both portrayals demonstrate a number of terminological affinities, the second account explicitly connects the divine face with the Lord's anthropomorphic "extend." The following account is drawn from the shorter recension of 2 Enoch:
Chapter 39
Enoch’s pitiful admonition to his sons with weeping and great lamentation, as he spoke to them
And now, my children it is not from my lips that I am reporting to you today, but from the lips of the Lord who has sent me to you. As for you, you hear my words, out of my lips, a human being created equal to yourselves; but I have heard the words from the fiery lips of the Lord. For the lips of the Lord are a furnace of fire, and his words are the fiery flames which come out. You, my children, you see my face, a human being created just like yourselves; I am one who has seen the face of the Lord,[9] like iron made burning hot by a fire, emitting sparks. For you gaze into my eyes, a human being created just like yourselves; but I have gazed into the eyes of the Lord, like the rays of the shining sun[10] and terrifying the eyes of a human being. You, my children, you see my right hand beckoning you, a human being created identical to yourselves; but I have seen the right hand of the Lord, beckoning me, who fills heaven. You see the extent of my body, the same as your own; but I have seen the extent of the Lord,[11] without measure and without analogy, who has no end... To stand before the King, who will be able to endure the infinite terror or of the great burning (2 Enoch 39:3-8)
fthis describes God's physical corporeal body
Chapter 44
Enoch instructs his sons, that they revile not the face of man, small or great
1The Lord with his hands having created man, in the likeness of his own face, the Lord made him small and great.
2Whoever reviles the ruler’s face, and abhors the Lord’s face, has despised the Lord's face, and he who vents anger on any man without injury, the Lord’s great anger will cut him down, he who spits on the face of man reproachfully, will be cut down at the Lord’s great judgment.
3Blessed is the man who does not direct his heart with malice against any man, and helps the injured and condemned, and raises the broken down, and shall do charity to the needy, because on the day of the great judgment every weight, every measure and every makeweight will be as in the market, that is to say they are hung on scales and stand in the market, and every one shall learn his own measure, and according to his measure shall take his reward.
The inner realization of the divine presence, of having met God face to face, and of having succeeded through prayer in attaining the divine favor and blessing that have been sought (turned toward God, face of God, within the presence of God, vision of God, recognition of God, beholden of God). At Peniel Jacob's name was changed to Israel because, as it was explained to him, "thou has striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed," had power with, margin (Gen. 32:28).
To see a vision of God's face is to experience the inner realization of the divine presence, of having met God face to face, and of having succeeded through prayer in obtaining the divine favour and blessing that have been sought within the presence of God.
Extracts from the Works of Theodotus
10 But not even the world of spirit and of intellect, nor the arch angels and the First-Created, no, nor even he himself is shapeless and formless and without figure, and incorporeal; but he also has his own shape and body corresponding to his preeminence over all spiritual beings, as also those who were first created have bodies corresponding to their preeminence over the beings subordinate to them. For, in general, that which has come into being is not unsubstantial, but they have form and body, though unlike the bodies in this world. Those which are here are male and female and differ from each other, but there he who is the Only-Begotten and inherently intellectual has been provided with his own form and with his own nature which is exceedingly pure and sovereign and directly enjoys the power of the Father; and the First-Created even though numerically distinct and susceptible of separate distinction and definition, nevertheless, are shown by the similarity of their state to have unity, equality and similarity. For among the Seven there is neither inferiority nor superiority and no advance is left for them, since they have received perfection from the beginning, at the time of the first creation from God through the Son. And he is said to be “inapproachable Light” as” Only-Begotten,” and “First-Born,” “the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man,” – and such a one shall not be found either among the First-Created or among men, – but they “always behold the face of the Father” and the face of the Father is the Son, through whom the Father is known. Yet that which sees and is seen cannot be formless or incorporeal. But they see not with an eye of sense, but with the eye of mind, such as the Father provided.
12 Therefore the First-Created behold both the Son and each other and the inferior orders of being, as also the archangels behold the First-Created. But the Son is the beginning of the vision of the Father, being called the “face” of the Father. And the angels, who are intellectual fire and intellectual spirits, have purified natures, but the greatest advance from intellectual fire, completely purified, is intellectual light, “into which things the angels desire to look,” as Peter says. Now the Son is still purer than this: “light unapproachable” and “a power of God” and, according to the Apostle, “we were redeemed by precious and blameless and spotless blood.” And his “garments gleamed as the light, and his face as the sun,” which it is not easy even to look at.
15 “And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly,” that is of the spiritual, as we advance towards perfection. Again he says “image” in the sense of spiritual bodies. And again, “For now we see in a mirror, confusedly, but then face to face”; for immediately we begin to have knowledge. . . there is not even “face” – form and shape and body. Now shape is perceived by shape, and face by face and recognition is made effectual by shapes and substances.
1On the tenth heaven, which is called Aravoth,I saw the view of the face of the Lord, like iron made burning hot in a fire and brought out, and it emits sparks and is incandescent. Thus even I saw the face of the Lord. But the face of the Lord is not to be talked about, it is so very marvelous and supremely awesome and supremely frightening.
2 And who am I to give an account of the incomprehensible being of the Lord, and of his face, so extremely strange and indescribable? And how many are his commands, and his multiple voice, and the Lord's throne, supremely great and not made by hands, and the choir stalls all around him, the cherubim and the seraphim armies, and their never-silent singing.
3 Who can give an account of his beautiful appearance, never changing and indescribable, and his great glory? 4 And I fell down flat and did obeisance to the Lord (2 Enoch 22:1-4, the longer recension).[8]
the face of yahweh is like iron this would symbolis his corporeal substance or divine nature
the fire would also the nautre of yahweh God is spirit and
it emits sparks this symoises the emanations of the spirit
For Yahweh thy God is a consuming
fire" — A consuming fire will eat up all
that it attacks. Yahweh is such to His
enemies. See Deut. 9:3. When Israel was
gathered at the mount, "the sight of the
glory of Yahweh was like devouring fire"
(Exod. 24:17).
Yahweh makes his ministers a flame of fire
the description of Yahweh's corporeality
In chapter 39 Enoch reports this theophanic experience to his sons during his short visit to the earth, adding some new details. Although both portrayals demonstrate a number of terminological affinities, the second account explicitly connects the divine face with the Lord's anthropomorphic "extend." The following account is drawn from the shorter recension of 2 Enoch:
Chapter 39
Enoch’s pitiful admonition to his sons with weeping and great lamentation, as he spoke to them
And now, my children it is not from my lips that I am reporting to you today, but from the lips of the Lord who has sent me to you. As for you, you hear my words, out of my lips, a human being created equal to yourselves; but I have heard the words from the fiery lips of the Lord. For the lips of the Lord are a furnace of fire, and his words are the fiery flames which come out. You, my children, you see my face, a human being created just like yourselves; I am one who has seen the face of the Lord,[9] like iron made burning hot by a fire, emitting sparks. For you gaze into my eyes, a human being created just like yourselves; but I have gazed into the eyes of the Lord, like the rays of the shining sun[10] and terrifying the eyes of a human being. You, my children, you see my right hand beckoning you, a human being created identical to yourselves; but I have seen the right hand of the Lord, beckoning me, who fills heaven. You see the extent of my body, the same as your own; but I have seen the extent of the Lord,[11] without measure and without analogy, who has no end... To stand before the King, who will be able to endure the infinite terror or of the great burning (2 Enoch 39:3-8)
fthis describes God's physical corporeal body
Chapter 44
Enoch instructs his sons, that they revile not the face of man, small or great
1The Lord with his hands having created man, in the likeness of his own face, the Lord made him small and great.
2Whoever reviles the ruler’s face, and abhors the Lord’s face, has despised the Lord's face, and he who vents anger on any man without injury, the Lord’s great anger will cut him down, he who spits on the face of man reproachfully, will be cut down at the Lord’s great judgment.
3Blessed is the man who does not direct his heart with malice against any man, and helps the injured and condemned, and raises the broken down, and shall do charity to the needy, because on the day of the great judgment every weight, every measure and every makeweight will be as in the market, that is to say they are hung on scales and stand in the market, and every one shall learn his own measure, and according to his measure shall take his reward.
The inner realization of the divine presence, of having met God face to face, and of having succeeded through prayer in attaining the divine favor and blessing that have been sought (turned toward God, face of God, within the presence of God, vision of God, recognition of God, beholden of God). At Peniel Jacob's name was changed to Israel because, as it was explained to him, "thou has striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed," had power with, margin (Gen. 32:28).
To see a vision of God's face is to experience the inner realization of the divine presence, of having met God face to face, and of having succeeded through prayer in obtaining the divine favour and blessing that have been sought within the presence of God.
10 But not even the world of spirit and of intellect, nor the arch angels and the First-Created, no, nor even he himself is shapeless and formless and without figure, and incorporeal; but he also has his own shape and body corresponding to his preeminence over all spiritual beings, as also those who were first created have bodies corresponding to their preeminence over the beings subordinate to them. For, in general, that which has come into being is not unsubstantial, but they have form and body, though unlike the bodies in this world. Those which are here are male and female and differ from each other, but there he who is the Only-Begotten and inherently intellectual has been provided with his own form and with his own nature which is exceedingly pure and sovereign and directly enjoys the power of the Father; and the First-Created even though numerically distinct and susceptible of separate distinction and definition, nevertheless, are shown by the similarity of their state to have unity, equality and similarity. For among the Seven there is neither inferiority nor superiority and no advance is left for them, since they have received perfection from the beginning, at the time of the first creation from God through the Son. And he is said to be “inapproachable Light” as” Only-Begotten,” and “First-Born,” “the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man,” – and such a one shall not be found either among the First-Created or among men, – but they “always behold the face of the Father” and the face of the Father is the Son, through whom the Father is known. Yet that which sees and is seen cannot be formless or incorporeal. But they see not with an eye of sense, but with the eye of mind, such as the Father provided.
12 Therefore the First-Created behold both the Son and each other and the inferior orders of being, as also the archangels behold the First-Created. But the Son is the beginning of the vision of the Father, being called the “face” of the Father. And the angels, who are intellectual fire and intellectual spirits, have purified natures, but the greatest advance from intellectual fire, completely purified, is intellectual light, “into which things the angels desire to look,” as Peter says. Now the Son is still purer than this: “light unapproachable” and “a power of God” and, according to the Apostle, “we were redeemed by precious and blameless and spotless blood.” And his “garments gleamed as the light, and his face as the sun,” which it is not easy even to look at.
15 “And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly,” that is of the spiritual, as we advance towards perfection. Again he says “image” in the sense of spiritual bodies. And again, “For now we see in a mirror, confusedly, but then face to face”; for immediately we begin to have knowledge. . . there is not even “face” – form and shape and body. Now shape is perceived by shape, and face by face and recognition is made effectual by shapes and substances.
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